The Sword Of Terraemotus
by NamesDontMatter
Summary: When Rachel's soul leaves her body and she spouts a prophecy it shall unite the 41 who are needed to save the world as we know it. Percabeth
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: We don't own Percy Jackson, Heroes of Olympus or Kane Chronicles.**

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><p>The sword of Terraemotus<p>

Prologue

Rachel had seen a lot of strange things since she met Percy, but this really took the metaphorical biscuit. Corpses were piled upon corpses, half eaten and carelessly tossed in piles like sacks of flour. The smell of their rotting flesh sent her head spinning; as if seeing their last moments before death wasn't bad enough. Those around her feet had died bravely fighting for what they believed was right, it was the same for all demigods Rachel mused thinking back to the burials of the demigods who died in the war. The bodies in front of her weren't helping, they looked too similar to her friends back at camp, dare she look to her left, slumped against their spear she could see Clarisse and to her right a tool belt exactly like Leo's lay in a heap.

In the corner of her eye she saw a mass of wriggling black tendrils, and turning fully she watched a spider crawl out from inside a nearby corpse, covered in what she realised must be the remains of the still pulsing intestines. _How fresh were the bodies anyway? _The spider froze mid-step feeling her gaze. Like a machine it spun around to meet her, its beady black eyes resting on her; all one hundred at once.

Shivers raced down her spine as their gazes locked, for such a gross creature its stare was captivating, almost intelligent. The contest lasted for what seemed like hours, then out of nowhere the spider turned back around and scuttled away. Rachel blinked, the effects of the glare wearing away; leaving her feeling dumb. Just when she began to suspect that the beast wasn't as brainless as she thought it reverted back to an ordinary creature.

_Where the hell was she anyway?_

It was then that Rachel had an epiphany. She must have fallen asleep thanks to Lacy's bad tastes in films and now she was dreaming of a mash up of Alice in wonderland, Saw and Tropic thunder. All she needed now was a sparkling Vampire and an angry prom queen, and she would officially be re-living all the films she had watched that night.

She scanned the area, half expecting a bunny in a waistcoat that she could chase when she spotted a trail of blood winding across the forest floor, leading deeper into the forest that hadn't been there a minute ago. Right before her eyes the little trickle of blood seemed to expand and she couldn't shake the feeling that someone was watching her.

Rachel pinched herself hard, this world kept getting creepier and she had had enough of this bogus dream. If there weren't going to be any sparkling vampires or a possible fan war she was going to wake up, maybe if she found out what ever this dream was trying to tell her she could wake up and forget about it. Her mind made up Rachel walked in the opposite direction of the mysterious trail of blood positive that it would only lead to trouble. Not once did the thought occur that maybe, just maybe it might have been safer to follow the trail and take the expected danger rather than step out into the unknown.

When she finally tumbled out of the dense wood pulling dead leaves from the red mass that was her hair she looked up to see an arrow fly past and bury its self into a nearby tree, she was quite surprised to see that her life could be on the line.

"_Now_ I see why they always follow the trail of blood!" She sighed readying herself to run away. It was a dream so she couldn't exactly get hurt, but its always nicer to be on the safe side.

_"Die little girl!" _A soft voice scuttled its way down from above her, accompanied by quiet giggles from what Rachel could only guess as the rest of the spider's family. Rolling her eyes she stepped back in time to see a sword fly past her face millimetres from her nose, and a long strand of thread in front of her.

Looking back at her next actions she probably should have seen this coming. Only today she and Annabeth had sat through 10 horror films and what had she learnt from that? Apparently nothing as she grabbed the string in front of her only succeeding in slicing her hand and dying the thread crimson, the string gave a sudden tug and the sword that almost killed her moments before flew backwards in the direction that it came from and was caught with a resounding click by a woman in what looked to be her late twenties. She had eight eyes, two with dark brown irises which was the exact same colour as her hair, the others located in the centre of her forehead in a circle all looking in different directions. Sheathing the sword the woman smiled lazily at Rachel revealing her razor sharp canines.

The woman wrapped the string around her index fingers like she was about to floss her teeth and proceeded to lick off the blood from the string. Her 8 eyes blinked in surprise and she grinned at Rachel all black eyes focused on her, sparkling intensely with cruel joy, just like the spider they had no whites.

_"My dear how very rude of me! why did you not tell me your blood was this sweet? It is very wrong to kill before eating, the freshness of the blood simply disappears, and it is _Such_ a waste!"_

Rachel groaned she asked for a vampire and she got exactly what she wanted. Oh it was annoying when the fates decided to be 'nice'.

The lady advanced leaping nimbly from web to web licking her black lips as she got closer and closer to Rachel, about to close in and suck her blood. Clasping her fingers around a Egyptian scimitar she stole from a soldier earlier, Rachel waited for the spider-woman to be right in front of her and lobbed the weapon at her would be attacker. She had nothing to fear if the lady survived or if she missed, sure her hand stung a bit but this was _only _a dream, she probably knocked over a cup or something in her sleep. The sword whistled through the air, catching the woman unaware mid-leap.

It hit its mark: right in the centre of her circle of eyes.

The Lady recoiled, leaped back to the tree that she'd started from and drew the sword out of her head wiping the trickle of golden blood away, totally unaffected by the blow, just rather annoyed. She looked back at Rachel with disdain._"I hoped you'd not do that I can't stand blood of one that's too smart for their own good, for example Athena. Now that minx never knew how to take a joke... A spider of all creatures! How horrid!" _The Lady's tone changed from condescending to miserable and she began to wail softly _"Even a silkworm..."_

An old story that Annabeth was explaining the other day suddenly popped into Rachel's mind, who was that girl that Athena cursed again? Arancat? Acne? Ariandne? No... Rachel really hoped that goddess wasn't listening in right now... Her eyes widened finally remembering the name.

"Are you Arachne?"

_"Who else? Insolent brat now I'm pissed" _

"Why?" Rachel was confused what exactly did she do (other than throwing a knife) to offend Arachne so much?

_"Don't you know..." _The skin of the woman before her began to get hairier and she stooped as two pairs of spider legs shot out of her back. _"That you should never question..." _Her arms and legs grew longer and her elbows and knees bent backwards, until gone was the sort of friendly looking woman and in her place stood the mother of all spiders hissing angrily. _"...a God!" _The huge creature scuttled towards Rachel, a writhing black wave of smaller spiders behind her all looking hungry. One thing you learn whilst living with a bunch of demi-gods is if you ever find yourself about to be eaten by a pack of hungry spiders with no weapons, and they weren't a part of your quest. Simply walk away without a fight (this doesn't apply to the Ares cabin of course).

And so that is why Rachel found her self being chased back through a forest by a bunch of very angry spiders which made her do the second thing that you should never do in a horror film: run right into a tree. Especially if your surrounded by half eaten bodies which may or may not be your friends. Head still throbbing and the reality that this might not be a dream slowly beginning to sink in Rachel turned to face the mass of spiders, unnerved by all the eyes and _fur_ that... _eww_ had almost touched her.

Rachel didn't quite understand how all the Oracle stuff works but she could accurately predict in the next 3 minutes she was most likely about to suffer the same fate as the corpses surrounding her.

Her mouth fell open as a corpse began to rise, being animated by what looked to be another spider web. The corpse dangled above the army of spiders, weapon clenched in it's hands like a puppet on strings. No one else but Rachel had noticed. And for the umpteenth time since she had met Percy Jackson outside the Damn toilets she wondered if she was going absolutely crazy.

_"Now my darlings, eat to your heart's content" _Arachne cackled oblivious to the puppet behind her and the other corpses that were gradually beginning to join it. Rachel shrieked as millions of spiders of all sizes crawled up her arms and legs, she panicked and began to thrash around swatting them before they could bite. The largest of the spiders had just managed to reach her elbow when a dagger from one of the puppets embedded itself into Arachne's leg. The spiders on Rachel froze, confused as they tried to see what was wrong with their mother. But those ten seconds of hesitation were all Rachel needed to swat the remaining spiders off and to run off in the direction of the trail of blood.

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><p>Half and hour later Rachel crouched down, glaring at a furry spider dangling from its fly-filled web about two metres away from the equally fly-filled bush she was hiding under. If the damn spider would just turn around and eat its stupid fly buffet for five minutes; Rachel could make a run for it. It edged closer to the fattest fly on the web, and Rachel found herself silently cheering it on, not that she encouraged gorging on some poor fly's guts but if that spider didn't dig in soon she would become a popsicle. The fact that she had red hair and skin that was turning blue just rubbed salt in the wound.<p>

The spider being the observant idiot that it was spun around to further survey the area. "For Pete's sake would it kill you to be a bad watchman for once in your miserable 30 day life?" Rachel muttered under her breath, then seeing a now familiar row of scorpions marching in her direction cursed.

It hadn't taken her long to figure out that all the spiders, scorpions and termites were in league with Arachne, nope Rachel had clued in somewhere between getting attacked by several angry ant-like things and being chased by the regular patrol of scorpions and boy did they run fast. The nerve-wrecking sound of scuttling anthropods got closer, and closer, _and even closer_. Rachel glared more at the annoyingly-good-at-watching-out-for-her spider, she was too angry to bother with thinking up a good insult so The A.G.A.W.O.F.H.S it shall henceforth be called, she grinned proud of her anagramic skills, but the daft spider turned round again!

There are times for thinking up elaborate plans and carrying said plan out perfectly, there are times in which you have a plan but it is better to wing it and there are times in which there is no need for a plan because in the next 3 minutes a lovely (heavy on the sarcasm) scorpion will find and kill you. Now was such a time.

Looking back at what she did next Rachel would probably agree that it was _the dumbest _thing she could have possibly done considering her circumstances, but then she would have laughed and said it was the most exhilarating experience she'd had in a long while, and probably go on to say it was the most exhilarating experience of that year but then she would admit she would be lying as there was lots more in store for her afterwards.

Rachel charged through the forest for the second time that day giving the A.G.A.W.O.F.H.S the middle finger as she ran past and using a tree branch that had broken somehow to leap over the stunned army of scorpions, hugging her knees to her chest Rachel ninja rolled for the hell of it, got up grinned and screamed "Up yours!" then turned and made a mad dash in the opposite direction.

Panting hard and sweat pouring off her, Rachel charged through the forest ducking and swerving around the trees but most at all regretting her decision, scorpions did _not_ like being mocked by a half-crazed Prophetess' especially when there were orders to kill her anyway. Not only did this mean all chance at being allowed to go free had gone down the drain but all the nearby scorpion patrols, the A.G.A.W.O.F.H.S and for some reason a whole nest of termites were trying to track her down. Thanks again to the A.G.A.W.O.F.H.S she had lost the trail of blood and seconds after flipping the scorpion patrol and the A.G.A.W.O.F.H.S she accidentally ran into Arachne and two other huge insecty-things and now they had also joined the chase.

_Oh frick, frick, frickety frickin frick f*cking fricksticks!_ She cursed as she raced through a pond _Really? _apparently having 8 legs made you an amazing swimmer too, why was it that only humans seemed to suffer in water? Panicking because the A.G.A.W.O.F.H.S just touched her she began to swim a cross between the doggy paddle and the butterfly in fact Rachel wasn't too sure was she was doing cos all she was thinking at the time was:

_IT'S SO COLD! WTH? OH LOOK I'M PULLING AHEAD! WHY IS IT SO COLD?_

Tired and questioning her sanity Rachel dragged herself out of the ice bath and resumed her run all the while wondering why she didn't take Mrs McHaggins up on her offer to join the track team or at least take Mrs O'Leary walkies.

Sunshine! Rachel blinked as she emerged out of the forest and she quickly stopped to rest behind... a wardrobe?

The spiders found her of course but as they all had 20-odd eyes each they were practically blinded when they ran out of the woods and into the suns glare, "Woohoo!" she yelled energised immediately catching the attention of more Spiders. "You'll never catch me!" she cried bringing even more Arthropods into the mix.

Apparently running for your life brings on extreme fits of stupidity and the crazy desire to start a conga line but that could be the hypothermia talking.

_"You can't run forever, Little girl"_

Good old Arachne you could always count on her to hold a grudge. Rachel thought sarcastically turning sharply to avoid being rained on by mini-spiders, It seemed Arachne's tactic to catch Rachel was to literally throw her children at her, what ever good that will do. It was only at the last second Rachel realised her mistake, she was now stuck between the edge of a cliff and a possibly 100ft drop, or a crazed mother spider intent on feeding her children. Somehow the rock and the hard place doesn't quite describe this situation. Rachel sighed she was starting to see purple dots... that wasn't good.

_"We have you now!" _Rachel blinked her eyes finally focusing on the collection of Arachnids before her, Arachne had taken Rachel's temporary blindness to revert back to her human-ish form and was now perched on the back of a gigantic Scorpion._ "Meet my son Antares"_ she gestured to the giant scorpion_ "...and my daughter Briseis" _she pointed to the huge Termite who was rolling around laughing "She's so fat!" "Mummy I want first bite!" "Are all humans that big? Will _it_ grow that big?" The spider that said that was elbowed... legged? by a few hundred of its siblings. _"We don't talk about _that, _EVER!"_ Arachne seemed really angry about whoever they were talking about.

_"You've already met my other children."_ Arachne giggled at Rachel's glare

"Why should I care?" Rachel challenged. Arachne looked at her, all eight eyes focusing on the soon to be former Oracle. _"Oh but I would feel so rude if you didn't know who was eating you." _she sighed softly as if she was sitting at a tea party. _"It was nice meeting you little girl I'm sure you will be most agreeable for dinner... wouldn't want any stomach problems so close to the completion of Gaia's plans"_ Arachne raised her hand and the army closed around Rachel_ "Obviously we're going to have to split you into thirds now, so don't struggle too much..." _Her grin widened as she lowered her hand.

Fate seemed to be sort of on Rachel's side today as at that moment the same strings as before appeared behind Arachne each one of them growing out of the ground and slowly moving side to side creating cracks in the side of the cliff. The cracked earth crumbled under the weight of the entire Arachnid army and Rachel - she would have probably laughed at the irony - but then she was falling too. Quietly she watched the terrified faces of the spiders as the the ground rushed towards them, fascinated by their flailing legs. The fact that she was falling with them didn't occur to her and Rachel probably wouldn't have ever realised it if it wasn't the fact that when she hit the blood red lake: a reflection of the skyline. She might have really thought this whole experience was just a bad dream.

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><p>Percy grunted, for the last two no, <em>three <em>hours he'd been asleep in the most uncomfortable position, one leg was in the popcorn the other was curled underneath him, nerves tingling with pins and needles and the worst part was that Annabeth his girlfriend of almost 2 years was sleeping on top of him, now normally that wouldn't be a bad thing but as much as he loved her, death by suffocation wasn't how he planned to die. And now he was faced with a dilemma... Suffocate to death or die by Annabeth's hand if he dared to wake her up during the REM part of the sleeping cycle.

There was of course the other option of moving her gently off him but knowing Annabeth's half-asleep punching habit he'd rather not risking the chance of dying of internal bleeding especially since his invunerability was gone. That left him stuck between his girlfriend and a wall and if one didn't back up soon Annabeth was going to wake up in her _dead _boyfriend's arms. He looked over to Rachel for help, she was his only girl friend other than Annabeth and she might be able to help him.

But when he looked over to the oracle he noticed that she wasn't breathing, or moving for that matter, a chill crept its way up his back something definitely wasn't right here... Not caring what would happen to him he pushed Annabeth off him. As he predicted; her fist connected with his gut and she sat up glaring at him through half asleep eyes. "What was that for?" She hissed rubbing at her arm which was beginning to bruise. _Whoops. _

"Rachel." Percy whispered at the red head's side in minutes. Annabeth blinked and turned her grey eyes towards her ex-rival, upon seeing her friend she gasped and felt for Rachel's pulse.

_There was none._

"Chiron!" She cried "Its Rachel! She's not waking up!" Everything seemed to slow down after that, He and Annabeth were on either side holding Rachel's hands, Chiron had called and Ambulance and manipulated the mist to make the paramedics believe that Camp half-blood was an ordinary camp site, then they had sped away to St Francis hospital. And now almost two hours later Percy and the other demigods at camp half blood gathered around the fire to hear of Rachel's sudden coma. Lacy was in hysterics moaning about how she could have gone another night without watching Twilight and the other campers were trying to calm her down.

"Alright listen!" Chiron stamped his hoof and the whole camp was in silence, every head turned around to face him and even the fire crackled a little quieter to hear him better. "Its seems that Rachel has fallen into a coma, according to the mortals a poisonous spider must have bitten her while she was sleeping and in order to preserve her life her body shut down... a hibernation if you will."

"Is she alright?" someone in the back piped up. "The doctors have already given her some injections that will hopefully counteract the poisons, all we can do is to sit and wait." Chiron sighed and began to trudge his way back toward the big house. Taking his exit as a cue to leave the demigods began to file back towards their cabins murmuring about the fate of there prophetic friend. Percy and Annabeth stayed behind for a few minutes staring blankly into the smokey fire thinking about what they had felt when they touched her. It was more than a spider bite that had her in that coma, they were sure of that; Her hands were too cold as if...

"She seemed dead." Percy looked up and saw his youngest cousin walking towards him his hands stuffed in his pockets. "Nico! when did you get there?" Annabeth sounded scared, not that she'd ever admit it. Nico rolled his eyes "I never left." He frowned, and chucked a piece of wood onto the fire. "Rachel's soul isn't with her anymore." He said casually as if informing them what he had for dinner that night.

"What do you mean?" Annabeth challenged standing up and looking down at him. "What I said." Nico replied not scared by Annabeth's menacing scowl in the least. Annabeth scowl grew and wrinkles appeared in her brow. "I meant what do you mean her soul isn't with her!"

"I'm a son of Hades, I know these things!" Nico groaned "Really don't you want to know what happened to her?"

"Yes, but do you know?" Annabeth crossed her arms and looked at him pointedly

"No..." He began slowly "But if you could figure out where her soul went to, you could... Oh its back"

Percy stared at him "What?" his trance was broken and he joined his girlfriend by the fire.

"...and its gone again." Nico informed them. Percy stared at his cousin "Like I said, what?" he asked again.

"Her soul came back to her body just then, I could have been a..." His eyebrows furrowed in concentration, "And its back again!"

"How can you tell?" Annabeth queried, she'd stopped scowling by then and her eyes kept flickering upwards like she was trying to remember something. Nico pointed to himself "Me. Son of death."

"I meant...!" She froze and jerked upright, the look on her face was one of such clarity Percy expected her to snap her fingers and yell EUREKA. "Be right back!" she yelled and ran towards her cabin. Moments later she came back with a huge book of Greek myths (all in ancient Greek of course).

"It should be here..." she muttered flicking through the pages. "Aha!" Annabeth beamed triumphantly and showed the boys a beautifully illustrated copy of the story of Orpheus.

Percy and Nico stared at her blankly.

Annabeth rolled her eyes and started to explain "Orphesus's wife Eurydice died on their wedding night so he traveled to the underworld to find her and he managed to charm both Hades and Persephone so they let him take her back on the condition that he doesn't turn around until they are both outside. But he does and she is dragged back."

The boys continued to stare blankly at her.

"Really?" She huffed "Anyway the story doesn't mention this but as her spirit was coming back to her it flickered in and out."

"So?" Percy asked honestly confused

"So, that's what's wrong with Rachel her spirit wants to get back to her!" Annabeth's smile widened "And If I'm correct we can find her in the underworld!"

"So its a quest?" Nico confirmed his dark brown eyes glittering, he turned to Percy "You in?"

Percy looked at Annabeth and grinned "Of course, I'll tell Chiron first thing tomorrow"

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><p>Rachel surfaced, at least she thought she had. Nothing made sense anymore and she kept slipping in and out of consciousness, She was aware of some sort of danger but at that moment she couldn't tell. Mustering all her energy she opened her eyes to see a kid of about 4 or 5 years old staring back at her. "Hi" She winced trying to get up, her body ached all over. In a second the boy crossed the floor almost as if he was levitating, gently he pushed her back down in to what looked to be a giant mound of cotton wool. "Don't move!" He commanded but his voice was more that of a terrified child than anything scary.<p>

"You need time to rest." He explained not meeting her eyes directly, as if he was afraid of her. "Who are you?" Rachel asked feeling a little more relaxed now she saw the kid meant her no harm.

"Aischylos, I live here by myself" He answered coolly but his eyes glimmered with tears, and he began to absentmindedly check a bite mark on his hand. "What kind of name is that?" Rachel blurted out then tried to get back up again "Sorry I didn't mean..." She started to say but stopped when he raised a hand - it was almost like a skeleton, bony and fragile looking; with paper white skin stretched over it revealing the web of blue veins underneath.

The kid himself was sort of wimpy looking: he had a drawn out face and even though he was dressed in a hospital gown, his ribs were sticking out... he was far from healthy, for a moment Rachel wondered if the kid was anorexic..._ It would explain the hospital gown. _She snapped out of her daydream as the kid made a high pitched strangled sound like a dying cat.

"It means Shame in ancient Greek, for I have shamed my family." Immediately after responding in his monotone voice he bit down on his lip with an extremely sharp-looking incisor. His black eyes now brimmed with tears and he unfurled his hands to wipe away the over spill. Rachel could tell that he honestly believed that he was despicable but she was shocked to hear that his family had kicked him out.

_What for? _She wondered _what kind of family would kick there four year-old child out? _Whatever this boy had done she was sure he didn't deserve this.

He bent over allowing his shaggy black hair to fall onto his pale face and touched a string, reminding Rachel sharply of Arachne. He stilled then looked up nervously at Rachel. "Mother's coming you should sleep..." Rachel was about to protest but Aischylos began to chant, her eyelids grew heavier and so did her body... sleep sounded like a good idea right now maybe she should... just take a nap...

Rachel felt the spirit of the Oracle take her body once more.

_When Lands of Egypt and Greece combine_

_The hearts of 41 shall align_

_And together they will fight the Earth_

_To win but lose and await Re-birth_

_Of all 3 lands, yet Greece is stronger_

_The gods won't help you any longer_

_..._

_Despite all this, peace will remain_

_A year at most, beware champagne_

_For on the day love's child is born_

_The Earth's will join as I have sworn._

_..._

_And she who chooses to follow night_

_Will grasp the moment and hold it tight_

_A day for each is all she can last_

_before she perishes in the blast_

_Time mustn't start or Earth will rise_

_And then begins the Gods demise_

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><p>To Be Continued...<p> 


	2. Meetings, Corpses and Smiles

Meetings, Corpses and smiles... that sounds Grim!

Disclaimer: We do not nor will ever own Percy Jackson, Heroes Of Olympus Or Kane Chronicles (though we wish we owned Nico :D)

Read and Review please!

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><p>Percy let out a sigh and whipped round to slash another spider in two. They'd been at it ever since he woke up in the forest and that had to have been a good <em>3 hours<em> ago. You'd think by now monsters might get tired of jumping on unsuspecting Demi-gods and melting into dust, but then again maybe reforming took out a few brain cells.

Actually why _were_ spiders attacking? Although he wasn't an expert on monsters like some nerdy daughter of Athena (coughcoughAnnabeth), he was pretty sure that monsters tended to come in slightly larger sizes... Okay, so some of the things he'd obliterateted today were HUGE but co_me on!_ Huge for a spider is_ still_ tiny compared to what he fought on a daily basis.

_Percy quit digressing and focus!_

"...Right" he muttered spotting a spider only slightly bigger than the last one crawling down a tree trunk, probably looking to jump on him without being noticed which is stupid since it had bright red spots on its back and was trying to tiptoe, and dumb because it was drawing attention to itself.

_Yeah... sad how you didn't notice untill it was less than a metre away_

...from now on that voice will be associated with Annabeth. Percy wasn't phased by it, it was bound to happen after spending six or so years with her.

_PERCY! FOCUS!_

He instinctively whirled Riptide to left bringing down his sword just in time to stop the spider from landing on his face. "Nice save seaweed brain." He grinned, wiping spider guts off the blade. _SNAP, _still feeling confident Percy looked over his shoulder to see a gang of scorpions marching towards him.

Obviously he didn't stick around to see what was coming next.

Clutching Riptide he weaved his way out of the forest, and just when he was feeling safer he tripped over Clarisse?

No, it wasn't her; this girl was a lot shorter and less frightening than Clarisse... not that Clarisse was frightening, she didn't need _more_ ego-boosting not with more new campers for her to pick on.

"Woah you okay?" He stood and offered his hand, she didn't move. "Hey!" He nudged her with his foot "Hey! Are you alright?" she rolled over and then he noticed the wound on her side.

She opened her mouth probably to say something else but what ever it was he couldn't hear it. To her he wasn't even there. He leaned over to touch her, and realised how bony she was... cold to boot like a skeleton.

The stain of blood on her clothes slowly changed from crimson to blood red and as it did the far away look in her eye died she began to rise coughing all the way. Her eyes widened as the stain on her clothes shrank, now she was standing and the shattered spear on the floor rose and flung itself into her side. Percy stared at her unabashed.

What was going on?

The spear flew out of her slowly and the bleeding stopped completely, the hole in her armour had gone now and she sprang into action, her expression menacing as she retraced her steps fighting an invisible army she shouted orders... or tried to but she was saying everything backwards.

"Hey what's going on?" He reached to grab her but she faded out completely.

"What..." he trailed off stunned. Who was this girl? And come to think of it why was she doing everything in reverse? He looked around and let out a gasp at what he saw. Other bodies all un-dying and re-living their last moments before fading.

"Weird," he was about to run again when he noticed that when they faded they seemingly returned to their death spots as skeletons "Okay..." he leaned over one of the bodies, to check if it was really there... wait.

He looked around, he was on a strange Island with thousands of bugs crawling around, the remains of a battle-field with reforming skeletons oh and not forgetting the fact he he no clue how he got there in the first place...

Percy was beginning to suspect this was a dream.

"TAS!" His thoughts broken Percy spun around to see the owner of the voice, but before he can get a good look vines encircled his legs, a simillar trick to what Katie Gardner does frequently to Travis Stoll when he tries to prank the Demeter cabin.

Using Riptide Percy cut through the vines and jumped away before more could capture him. "Who are you?" he yelled holding up his sword as the figure of a 15 year old (give or take a year) African-american kid, with curly black hair appeared from the bushes also holding a sword albeit a little bent in the middle.

"Who are _you_?" the kid retorted. O_kay, so not __Greek -_ he wasn't bragging or anything but _every_ kid in the Greek camp knows who Percy Jackson is, it came with being a child of one of the Big 3.

"Roman it is then." funny, the kid didn't seem to like that, and angry Romans were never fun opponents. Fun does not go with an angry Roman. Pulverisation and mutilation often spring to mind though.

Percy wasn't bothered in the slightest about fighting Romans, angry or not, already used to them since Gaia tried to kill the gods and what-not. "Freaky how I'm related to her" he mused, ducking awkwardly to avoid an unexpected haircut via a pissed off Roman barber.

"Hey! You may be a child of Ceres or something Romany- but that doesn't mean its okay to try and fight Greeks! Do they teach you nothing at your camp!" He smirked at that one, knowing first hand exactly what went on inside the Roman camp. Still, camp rivalry and almost 2 thousand years of war died hard."

The kid shouted "TAS!" again but Percy was ready for that one and dodged all the vines, but as he finished dodging them he found himself face to face with the kid's sword point. What was the kid's problem anyway? He was sure that the Romans and Greeks were friends now...

"I am _not _a child of Ceres!" Really? Then what was with the vines? Maybe he was a child of Mars? Didn't the Roman version of Ares have some control over earth?

"Mars?" He guessed again. It would explain the need for violence.

His eyes narrowed "No! I am not born under any of those scumbag Roman deities!" He probably would have said more but Demi-gods don't do so well in small spaces and was unprepared for when he was hit in the face with salt water and his sword flung to the side.

Percy would have felt sorry but... he started it. "Hey, who _are _you really?" the kid looked up from using his arm to dry his face. "Carter Kane." he muttered and retrieved his sword. "Now are you responsible for this or not?"

"For what?" Percy asked distractedly, busy trying to figure Carter out... Not Roman? Was he a Greek? No impossible. As dense as Percy was he'd remember a face from camp. Carter definitely wasn't Greek.

"This! Bringing me out here! What ever you've done to those people...!" he gestured to the skeletons reforming on the ground. "Are you responsible?"

"Nope. Well maybe. Dreams are your subconscious mind aren't they? So I'm sort of responsible... maybe." Maybe he was undiscovered... but the gods had promised... they swore on the river Styx and everything!

"This isn't a dream... is it?" Percy glanced at Carter. The kid didn't look so fierce any more now he was seriously doubting his sanity.

"Come to think of it I haven't seen Horus ... and I don't look like a chicken." He walked over to Percy with a sheepish look. "Sorry 'bout that. When I'm annoyed I tend to go slightly psycho- just be glad I didn't attempt to fight you to the death."

"No worries! Can I ask you something? It's been bugging me for a while now?"

"Ok." Carter raised an eyebrow but had calmed down now and otherwise didn't look like he was considering murder.

"What are you. Greek or Roman?" Percy was betting on Roman

"What?"

"Are you a Greek demigod or a Roman demigod?"

"... Neither, I'm pretty sure I'm human."

"Wait... what? But you just..." Like he'd said before there was a good chance Carter was undetermined.

"I am an Egyptian magician though."

"A what? They have those?"

"Yes... What kind of Magician are you?"

"I'm not. But really? No godly parent?"

"Well my father _is _Osiris."

"Who?"

"Osiris... as in Egyptian God of the underworld!"

"So you're an Egyptian demigod?"

"No! He _became_ Osiris when I was 14!"

"So you're not a demigod?"

Carter let out a heavy sigh. "No. No I'm not a demigod. They don't exist."

"_I'm_ a demigod... a Greek demigod... Son of Poseidon actually." So he really wasn't A demigod? He'd have to ask Annabeth about it later. Yes, he consulted his girlfriend about almost everything, it came with being best friends before a relationship.

"Why am I arguing in my dream?" Carter muttered under his breath

"Precisely what I'm thinking." Percy agreed

"Y'know- I don't know your name."

"Percy Jackson." He offered his hand "Nice to meet you."

Carter shook it.

* * *

><p>Rachel groaned. Her head felt like it had been stuffed with cotton wool, her body was pulsing in pain and for the icing on top of the cake she was as dry as a desert that had taken a random trip to the sun but had died of thirst 'cos it had got stranded and... she shouldn't be allowed to think before 10am... ever. "Oh gods..." she moaned giving up her attempt of rolling over.<p>

This is worse than the time she agreed to to Spar with an Ares kid... it wasn't even Clarisse but it had hurt! And worst of all she'd promised to help Piper today...

Oh gosh what day is it? Rachel fully opened her eyes and sat up, she immediately regretted it and flopped back down onto the bed. Wait... where _was _she?

"Are you awake?" a soft voice called from outside and shortly after a kid of about 4 walked in carrying some grass and berries.

"Nmmghh." She was too tired to deal with anything right now. If she was in danger they could kill her in her sleep for all she cared. It's too early and I'm too tired to make decisions she thought. Besides wasn't making a decision whilst not fully sane illegal? Again, she wondered if she could buy a thought controller- She could sell them to demigods and everything... Nah too much effort.

Strange though... the voice sounded kinda like Arachne's ...who _was_ she anyway?

* * *

><p>"So when do you think we'll wake up?"<p>

Percy looked up from his intense staring match with a spider who had evidently decided not to even try to attack them... just the way he liked his Arthropods.

"Dunno. Normally Annabeth or Tyson would wake me..."

For the past 20 minutes he and Carter had been chatting about their adventures in the past year.

"Yeah but it's my dream."

Although Carter was friendly and pretty harmless, he possessed some inner rage that was left over from when 'Horus' was a 'host' in Carter's body- What ever that meant. In fact his whole story, whilst being pretty simillar to Percy's was a litte far fetched.

"No way, I was fighting spiders way before you got here."

Percy rolled his eyes. Carter was confident, for a guy who was the side effect of a late night snack.

"So how do you explain the memories of my entire life? I _just_ told you what happened this year!"

"The product of cheese and chocolate before bed."

Carter spluttered, his mouth twisted into a wry grin, as if he was unsure whether to laugh or be concerned. The result was a sound like a bear choking. His eye wide with disbelief, he finally coughed out "You're an idiot." and his face broke out into a bright smile. It dropped when he saw how serious Percy looked.

"You're serious?"

Percy was about to respond but a shimmer in the air near to them caught his eye. "Hey Percy you're not really-" There was an edge of fear to his tone but Percy raised his hand to silence his friend. He reached into his pocket to draw out his sword/pen and expertly flicked off the cap. The shimmer darted back as Percy advanced all the while growing, and morphing slowly into somewhat of a door-shape.

He was about to touch it (not exactly a plan worthy of Athena), but the door dropped to the ground and faded leaving a dazed blond boy in it place- A familiar scar framed his upper lip and he had 12 lines etched into his forearm like a bar code. He stood slowly electric blue eyes widening as he took in the scene around him. He stared for several minutes and Percy was beginning to worry about his mental health.

"Jason." That broke him out of his trance. He half-turned to Percy his eyebrows furrowed "What's going on?"

"Wait, you two know each other?" Carter had also pulled out his sword when he saw the shimmer and didn't realise he still had it with him.

"Who's that?" Jason assumed classic Roman intimidation position.

"Yes. And he is Carter, a creation of Nachos, popcorn and Cherry coke." Carter face-palmed

"Not going to comment." he muttered under his breath.

Jason nodded dropping his stance "Yeah the Roman party was pretty wild too." Percy snorted

"No, Greek parties are so much better. Besides Chiron organised a week long feast."

"Just like you Greeks. You do realise all your duties will be given up for a week? Several demigods could die!"

"One, your girlfriend is Greek so don't diss. Two, yes we know. And three, nope 'cos our lovely Roman friends will do the work for us." Jason glared but said nothing, meaning that it was true.

"AAAAaaaahhh! s-s-smoke MONSTER!"

"Wasn't that _Grover?_" It seemed the two were back on friendly terms.

Percy nodded "Yup. Could this dream get_ any_ weirder?"

Carter hit him "Don't _challenge_ the gods." Percy rolled his eyes.

"Nah- Hypnos is chill. Somnus though..." Here he looked to Jason for help.

"Likes to kill people in there sleep for kicks and giggles, _naturellement_."

Apparently it wasn't just him who spent far too much time with their girlfriend. Jason picked up _French _for Gods sake. "Lovely... Got it, Don't challenge the gods."

* * *

><p>When Rachel finally felt ready to tackle the world it was already dark.<p>

"Oh man I slept for an _entire_ day?"

She clutched her head and sat up, her head didn't hurt as much now the pounding had been replaced by a dull ache. Why was she in a cave? Not that it was creepy or anything.

The room was coated in smooth spider silk like the inside of a cocoon. It had a child-like touch to it as well, scattered picture books and crayons everywhere... okay so the picture books were detailed diagrams, but they were still strewn across the floor in a childish way.

Rachel was about to get up when a small voice piped up "Don't move. You fell of a cliff this morning." she froze and turned her still aching head to look at the boy who had spoken.

He was curled up on the far side of the cave staring intently at a book, one bony finger tracing a shape as he scanned through the text. Fear crept into her heart. He looked just like Arachne, not that Rachel remembered who that was, but something about a soft voice and eight eyes sent a chill down her spine; and innocent or not this kid had something to do with her. Who was this child? Did he bring her here? And _why_?

"What do you eat by the way? I know rabbit's like carrots and mice like corn, but I've never met someone like you before..." He thought for a while, black eyebrows knitted together whilst he tried to remember something "Wait, do you eat flies?"

"Why would I eat flies?" Rachel snapped, normally she got on with children but she had no idea why she was in this cave and he seemed to be the only culprit.

"Mum eats flies, even when she looks like you. But with more eyes of course." If he heard the anger in her tone he wasn't disturbed by it.

"Did you bring me here?" Rachel snapped, convinced the kid was evil or possessed.

He finally tore his gaze away from his book "Mmm... mother would have killed you otherwise."

"How?" If she could figure out how he brought he here she might be able to get back home. Hopefully not too much time had past.

"Bringing you here or how she would of killed you?"

She rolled her eyes "Bringing me here?" She didn't really want to know how she would've died.

He pointed to a sled "I pulled you out of the lake and dragged you back here. Oh and sorry."

"For what?" If he was trying to distract her he was doing a good job.

"Almost killing you when I broke the edge of the cliff. It was either that or using a web to bring you down... but I didn't want to panic you." Rachel hummed in frustration.

"No, thanks for that, it was better than being eaten." She relented.

Some faint memories of the night before sprung to mind. "I'm guessing you stabbed Arachne in the leg the first time as well." He nodded and uncurled himself, wincing. Rachel caught a glimpse of a gash on his side.

"She figured it was me too." He explained simply.

"Oh, so you didn't bring me to this Island?"

"Not that I know of." He replied seriously.

Rachel sighed. The kid didn't seem to be a threat, still what did he mean by that? He saw her expression.

"My names Aischylos. Don't you remember?"

She didn't. What had happened between watching Twilight and waking up here was all a big blur. All she could really think about now was how to get home.

"Nope, i'm sorry. My name's Rachel. Nice to meet you I guess." She gave him a half smile. Aischylos frowned he stared at her with such an intense look her smile began to waver. "What's-?"

"What's that?" He demanded

"What?" He pointed directly at her "That, the thing you did with your mouth!" He tried to imitate Rachel's smile.

He failed, his smile was more of:

a) Something normally seen on clowns and murderers.

b) A look that sent shivers down Rachel's spine and shouldn't be compared to a smile ever.

c) An epic fail times infinity.

d) All of the above.

If you answered d) congratulations! You're correct. His smile was something that should come with the rating 18+. It was _that_ bad, but that aside, did he not _know _what a smile _was_?

"Umm... It's a smile. You smile when your happy I guess?"

"You're... happy?" He asked tentatively. "What does it feel like?"

Rachel gasped. "You don't know what happiness is either?"

"Happiness is a mental state of well-being characterized by positive emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy. I have never felt that. Rachel, what does it _feel _like?"

The fact Rachel was a sucker for (obsessed with) sad films had nothing to do with the reason she began to sob like a baby.

At that moment, Aischylos's expression was so earnest and child-like that even Gaia (had she been watching) would have let a few tears through, and she would have gone on to cry for hours had Aischylos not crossed over to her 'bed' and wiped a tear away exasperatedly muttering "Gods what is she up to now?"

From that second on Rachel resolved to teach this kid all she knew on how to be happy.

* * *

><p>To be Continued...<p>

A/N: Thanks to all who Reviewed or Favourited/Alerted the last chapter and we hope you enjoyed this one!

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	3. Bugs, Cuddling and Narnia

Disclaimer: We don't and will never own Percy Jackson, Kane Chronicles, Heroes Of Olympus and any of the awesome Characters which obviously belong to Rick Riordan.

A/N: Sorry for the long wait guys but as we said we have had heaps of exams which stopped us from getting this one done but now were back! Wasn't Son Of Neptune amazing, yes all three of us have read it now and we all agree it was brilliant! :D

Hope you guys all enjoy this!

* * *

><p>Percy concluded that for Demigod'sEgyptian magician's the fastest way to make friends is to team up and kill a bunch of monsters. Already Carter and Jason had put their differences behind them and had worked together to make a considerable dent in the huge scorpion army.

It seemed not 5 minutes had gone by before the little critters had found them sitting around chatting (boasting) about their numerous adventures. Of course they_ had _to attack, but not before calling in reinforcements.

The spider from before _hadn't_ learnt at all from his stare down with Percy and had managed to bring back a rather sizeable collection of insects.

Well... what was a sizeable collection of insects.

In less than 20 minutes the army was only 1/3 of its original size. Not too bad for 3 demigods. One spider squealed shrilly, sounding something like a cross between nails on a blackboard and a hissing cat, and the all other arthropods fell back immediately.

Percy's whole body tensed, just waiting for the creatures to jump. He'd finish them before the even got _close. _

But still nothing; their leader, a huge hairy brown thing with wide glistening black eyes (the kind that was usually found inside bathtubs), raised one long leg and the collection of varied insects dispersed just as quickly as they'd appeared.

"...That was easy." Percy muttered and glanced at Carter who was already storing away his sword.

Jason was also poised. Rule no 1 of monster warfare: 'If they retreat it doesn't mean the battle's over yet.' Every demigod knew that; still Carter wasn't a normal demigod... maybe it was some sort of reverse psychology?

Percy shook his head but he too relaxed his stance. There were no 'monsters' in sight anymore but he just couldn't shake off the feeling something was still out there just waiting.

He trotted slowly over to Carter and Jason but froze immediately when a loud clicking sound filled the silence of the small clearing.

He was about to shake it off when another noise that sounded suspiciously like a creaking door, this time followed by a soft shuffling, caught his attention. It was the sound of someone walking across a wooden floor. Except... he was surrounded by_ sand_. He was immediately on guard and all his senses were tingling.

_Something was definitely up._

"Hey, Percy they're gone now." He hadn't even realised he had drawn his sword, Carter and Jason were already a few metres away, and he faintly remembered them muttering about finding a safer place.

"Mmm-" He wasn't totally convinced they were safe yet but he reluctantly capped Riptide and it shrunk rapidly until it was once more in pen form, before he quickly returned it to his pocket and started towards them, all the while throwing hasty glances over his shoulder.

Percy had almost convinced himself that it was purely just his imagination playing up when he heard a _thump_ and a long string of greek curses.

He swiftly pulled Riptide from his pocket and used his eyes to scan the surrounding trees for the enemy. This time he was positive about the rustling, and it was coming from the right. But wherever he turned his head he saw nothing but trees.

"You alright?" Carter brought him crashing back to reality with a hard but friendly clap to the back.

He sighed and nodded, a determined frown on his face as he tried to pin-point the cause of the rustling.

He realised his friends were watching him with concern written upon there faces; most likely for his mental health.

He rolled his eyes and shot them a semi-genuine smile.

"I'm _fine_! Really." And he was. Hearing voices in your head was_ normal_ for a demigod.

"Just a little paranoid. Look its not Gaia okay? She's gone for good."_ Hopefully._ Some of the worry slipped off their faces and they shrugged and began their trek to the 'safe' place, but Percy could practically _hear _their mental conversation, it was something along the lines of:

_"He's not okay"- Jason raised his eyebrows and shook his head slightly_

_"Agreed"- Carter nodded, glancing at Percy and shaking his head as well _

_"So what are we going to do?"- Jason looked meaningfully at Carter and inclined his head towards Percy_

_"Either take him to a mental home or cure him ourselves"- Carter shrugged and grinned, revealing a small set of dimples_

_"Do they have mental homes on this Island?"- Jason looked back at Percy, wrinkling his nose slightly in concentration_

_"Why not? I'm sure I saw a wardrobe a while back."- Carter shrugged and glanced over his shoulder to where they'd just been_

_"Touche."- Jason nodded_

_"So is he schizophrenic or what?"- Carter mimed a mental patient, managing to look like an alpaca with its head on fire then pointed at Percy_ **(A/N: Reference to a friend of ours)**

_"Or what."- Jason snorted but didn't do anything else_

_Carter glared, then raised one eyebrow "_Funny. _No seriously, is he-"_

"I'M FINE-!" Percy groaned trying hard not to glance over his shoulder again, the rustling grew louder then quieter as if whoever it was, was pacing.

Finally the rustling quieted and Percy beamed thinking they had decided not to attack after all, but then the person started tapping random rhythms: a nervous habit which he associated with Annabeth.

He managed to look sane for about 20 seconds of this tapping, but his instincts where telling him to be on guard, The tapping could be a signal for re-enoforcements. Carter shrugged, evidently caring more about finding a base than determining how sick his new friend was.

"So, I think we should try and find the Wardrobe again." Jason transferred his frown from Percy to Carter.

"No way! That's too close to where all those spiders came from." The two started to walk further into the forest whilst arguing animatedly, Percy following at a slower pace determined not to look back at what ever the sound was.

It was hard, the sound of rustling was getting rapidly louder and closer, so very close he was sure what-ever it was, it was standing right next to him. He couldn't_ help _but look again, right at the moment when Jason had just asked for his thoughts on where they should set up camp.

He scowled at the tree knowing that he was going to be signed up for therapy the second Jason and Carter found civilisation in this place.

Percy growled in frustration, he was so sure this time.

A hand tapped him on his left shoulder and he spun round ready to kill whoever had been stalking them only to come face to face with Jason.

_Oh._

Percy dropped his gaze to the clenched fists at his sides, slightly scared at how close he'd been to to smashing his fist right into someone who had become one of his closest friends. The rustling didn't stop but he ignored it this time.

_ It will go away _he tried to reassure himself.

"Percy, listen to me. W_hat_ is going on?"

Percy stared at the blond.

"Can't you hear it?" He questioned

Jason frowned and shook his head, Percy looked over at Carter who was looking increasingly worried. He figured they couldn't hear anything but he had to make sure.

"The rustling, neither of you can hear it?" They glanced at each other and shook their heads.

Percy groaned and leaned against a tree hands clasping his bowed head.

"Am I going _insane_?" He whispered.

Another hand rested on his shoulder and he glanced over fully expecting Carter to be there, but no-one was.

_It's just your imagination, learn to lay off the cheese before bed... It's just your imagination._ He chanted in his head, ignoring the feeling of small hands digging into his shoulders.

_It's just your imagination. It's just your imagination. It's just your-_

_"Percy!" -_ That was Annabeth's voice _"Percy you Oaf, Wake up!" _his girlfriends voice was clogged with an emotion he rarely heard from her.

Fear.

He stopped and looked around. If Annabeth was hurt, he'd never get over it.

"Look, Percy-" Jason tried. Percy shook him off. He was _sure _this time. It _was_ Annabeth. It _had _to be.

"Annabeth?" He called frantically pushing himself from the tree and rushing around. She could be hurt or... or-.

Carter rolled his eyes "Percy, you should really-" He never got to finish because as soon as he'd started to lecture Percy on his insanity, Percy senses filled with things that weren't there or rather shouldn't be on a spider-infested island at all.

He could smell salt mixed with something earthy- wood maybe? And he felt like he was wrapped in sheets.

A semi-grogginess descended on him and his breathing slowed. It was almost like he'd been...

_"Percy, Open you eyes!"_

Everything went dark.

* * *

><p>Kifa glanced nervously at the two demigods she'd just met, not completely sure whether or not to ask if having such realistic dreams was part of being a demigod. Not that she was sure they both were demigods. She hadn't seen Walt around camp at least, Clarisse was infamous for- well being Clarisse, so she was very hard to miss.<p>

Not that she'd been there long enough to know that, after all Walt could be on a quest or something- they were practically daily now.

"Err..." She quickly shut-up when the daughter of Ares sent a sharp glare her way. Kifa really hadn't had a run in with Clarisse yet, but the stories she'd heard from her ex-friends in the unclaimed cabin meant she'd avoided the Ares kids at all costs.

She'd rather not spend her summer being beaten up, without any siblings to defend her.

Fiddling with her dress - though she wasn't exactly too sure how she got it - she turned her attention to the other demigod in the room. He was still deathly pale from when he first ran into her - she got that sometimes, after all, her appearance could be a little scary, namely her hair - an obnoxious shade of fuschia from a failed attempt to dye her white-blond hair black (don't even ask how that happened), and of course that combined with her horror movie make up made a startling visage. It seemed unless Lucy did it, she would end up looking something resembling Dracula's bride.

But calling her a spirit of death and almost having a full blown panic attack? That was a _bit_ much.

He'd calmed down a little when Clarisse showed up with the termites, but he was still avoiding her like the plague.

Kifa sighed. As much as she should be comforted by the silence in the room since her cabin had been empty of all except her for weeks now, she couldn't help but miss her old room and grandparents, essentially the reason why she'd got a pass to go home for a few weeks.

She could only wish it could last for longer.

The silence was broken by a buzzing- no vibrating.

Automatically Kifa patted her thighs searching for he phone but stopped when she realised that: 1. She didn't have pockets and 2. The other two demigods in the cave where staring at her oddly.

The buzzing continued until finally it broke into Walking on sunshine, which was the theme set to play when her best friend Lucy called.

_Lucy! Oh gosh what time was it back home?. _

Kifa absentmindedly resumed her search for her phone, even fumbling over the sides of the cave for it.

"Are you alright?" Walt asked still nervous and wary around her, he was valiantly trying to hold back a laugh.

Clarisse couldn't even manage that, she had laughed in Kifa's face then muttered something along the lines of 'spending too much time with those Hermes kids, stupid boyfriend.'

"Yup just peachy!" Kifa directed her friendliest smile at Walt and he shrank further into the corner where he was sitting.

_Worth a shot._

Clarisse snorted "Peachy?"

Kifa fought back a yawn "Shuddup! I'm tired."

Honestly she was starting to prefer the silence.

"Mmm, mind telling us why your feeling up the cave walls?"

Kifa blushed "I'm trying to find my phone." she mumbled. "My friend's calling me."

Clarisse frowned "How'd you know? Are you some child of Apollo?"

Kifa thought about this for a while. She wasn't too good with arrows or healing people but she was fairly good at predicting when something bad would happen - did that count as the gift of prophecy?

Eventually she shrugged "I don't know, I'm still unclaimed."

Immediately she felt somewhat guilty - a feeling she been trying to squash ever since she found out about demigods last winter, other than the fact she could easily cross the border she had no demigod qualities. She couldn't speak ancient greek, didn't have dyslexia and was a little more into structure and order than most demigods.

Every time she'd gone back to camp she'd pray that the god's wouldn't smite her for being a fake.

"Your older than 13 right?"

Kifa nodded

"You sure?"

Kifa sighed "I'm 14 believe it or not."

Clarisse groaned massaging her temples "Yay, looks like a new prophecy will start. Woo-de-freaking-hoo."

"What are you talking about?" Walt spoke up finally back to a normal colouring.

"Clarisse seems to think my not being claimed is going to lead to another prophecy" Kifa ended her sentence with an over-exaggerated eye roll to show she was kidding but he looked even more confused.

"What do you mean being 'claimed'?" He emphasised his point by making quotation marks in the air.

He didn't know? What, was this his first day? No wait they explained the process of being claimed right after they pointed out Camp-half blood's resident hero Percy Jackson.

Another thought came to her "Wait are realistic dreams normal for a demigod?"

Clarisse shrugged "Sometimes, not this real though."

"What's a demigod?" asked Walt.

Kifa's phone (wherever it was), broke into a second round of Walking on sunshine snapping her out of her daze.

"My phone!" She cried and fumbled frantically for it, soon her fingers curling around a familiar smooth rectangle and she brought it towards her so she could unlock her phone when she realised that she was seemingly holding empty air. Yet she could feel her phone vibrating in her hands.

Instead of panicking which she realised would be the normal thing to do she felt suddenly exhausted and the cold damp feeling of the cave was replaced by her grandmother's lavender perfume and the almost uncomfortable heat of the rusty radiator. In fact she could hear its gentle clicking faintly in the background, lulling her to sleep...

_"I'm walking on sunshine wooah, I'm walking on sunshine wooah, and don't it feel good!"_

Kifa's eyes fluttered open and she squinted at the offending light coming from her phone.

Yawning she typed her password in and clicked accept call, transferring the phone into her right hand she pressed it against her ear and winced as she heard her best friends high-pitched voice.

"Hey Lucy." She said thickly, scratching her head and blindly feeling for the volume. She had long given up on keeping her eyes open and was in danger of dropping off at any moment.

"Kifa! You'll never guess what!" Lucy screeched sonding like she'd just won the lottery... again.

"What Lucy?" Kifa winced in anticipation for her friends detailed and loud-pitched explanation of whatever was on her mind at- Kifa glanced at her bedside clock- 4am in the morning.

"I found Narnia!"

"What?" Her eyes flew open in shock, not so much at what Lucy was saying but at how loud she was.

"I. Found. Narnia.!" Lucy squealed. In all honesty Kifa was surprised her friend's sentence was so short. Maybe miracles did exist.

"Lucy?" she muttered, clicking away at the screen to find the 'off' button

"Mmm?"

"It's 4 in the morning, call me at a normal hour." And with that she switched her phone off and chucked it at the wall before collapsing back into her bed.

* * *

><p>"Hey"<p>

Percy looked up to see Annabeth standing over him. "Hey. Sleep well?" He rose and pulled her into a tight hug, noticing how tired she looked, before he shifted over so that she could sit down as well.

"No, I had a really scary dream last night." Absentmindedly she pulled the cover over her and snuggled down next to him. It should be weird how easily they had adapted to being more than friends but it wasn't.

"Mmm?" He wrapped his arm around her and pulled her closer. How long had she been there? he wondered. _Gods_ she was absolutely freezing!

Annabeth sniffed and Percy almost gasped at the sight of the tears threatening to fall.

Annabeth never cried!

Immediately his protective boyfriend side kicked in and he felt an overwhelming desire to punch someone.

She scowled up at him and he was relieved to be a teensy bit afraid, it showed his girlfriend was still as feisty as ever.

"I can take care of myself seaweed brain! You don't need to get all protective! Nothing really bad happened just one too many spiders okay?" He nodded rolling his eye at her severe Arachnophobia, except for some poisonous types and the spiders in his dream, the most terrifying a spider could be was laying its eggs in your room; and that was more gross than scary.

"So why'd you come here?" Now that he knew she was safe he felt more relaxed and couldn't help but wonder why she had chosen his cabin to spend the night.

Annabeth shrugged, her fear forgotten. "I was a little shaken up after watching a kid die, oh and I was sure there was a spider in our cabin."

Percy stared at her "A kid died!"

"Hmm" Annabeth frowned for a second, remembering her dream. She looked like she had more to say but when she glanced back at Percy her second point was forgotten.

"Oh relax Percy it was just a dream." She laughed, and Percy decided not to ask her what else she was about to say.

"Night." She muttered settling down and pulling the covers over her.

He frowned "Demigods don't have 'just dreams'."

Annabeth sighed and glared at him but propped herself up."I don't even know the guy, plus where in the world is there the remains of a World War I army camp? One that's not filled with history buffs?"

She had a point.

He ignored the feeling that there was more to this than a dream and grinned "So you thought you'd come here to protect your self from the evil arachnids?"

Annabeth rolled her eyes at the jibe "Spiders don't like salt water." She poked him in the chest to make her point.

"Really? I thought it was citrus fruits." He grinned at her annoyance, but she smiled at how well he remembered natural spider repellents.

She nodded, her eyebrows furrowed in thought as she began mentally checking all the other repellents off her list "and chestnuts, bug devices, tobacco, dirty socks and/or sweat or strong smelling herbal oils sprinkled in cracks. Oh! Burning incense works too."

Percy thought back to the week Annabeth had moved her desk into the Poseidon cabin complaining about said smell.

"Oh so was that what that was all about?"

She grinned.

"Believe me we Athena kids have a section in our cabin devoted to making up new ones- but no-ones restocked since the titan war and breaking into the Demeter cabin is not an option."

Percy nodded in agreement, you'd have to be an idiot to break into the Demeter cabin... or a Stoll.

He yawned "You know after we figure out whether or not Rachel is in the underworld we could go repellent shopping."

Annabeth brightened instantly but then she frowned, suspicious of his motives "Okay what did you do this time?" She demanded.

"Nothing." Percy smiled lazily, settling himself down to sleep "Just trying to avoid having another room mate." Annabeth glared and Percy knew that she would have hit him, had he not gone to sleep right in that instant.

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><p>To Be Continued...<p>

A/N:

Once again were really sorry for the wait and we hope you enjoyed this.

Please continue to review they really motivate us to write quicker!


	4. French, Cyanide and a Curious Prophecy

_Disclaimer: We don't and will never own Percy Jackson, Kane Chronicles, Heroes Of Olympus and any of the awesome Characters which obviously belong to Rick Riordan._

_A/N: Ok, i'm going to start off by saying how sorry i am that this took so long to update, it's actually been written for a few weeks, but i the person who publishes the new chapters kept forgetting i needed to do this and just getting generally distracted, so i am extremely sorry and i hope this chapter helps you forgive me._

_Now apologies over, all three of us hope you really enjoy this chapter. On with the story!_

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><p>This was the second time that morning Percy had woken up to find a strange person in his cabin. Shrouded by a cluster of shadows was his second favourite cousin; Nico. He was perched on Tyson's bed, staring into space with a puzzled look; something Percy would never have associated with his cousin. Though Nico could be dark and more than a little reserved, he somehow seemed... one step ahead. Or at least that's what he tried to be.<p>

"What a wonderful surprise!" Percy broke the erie silence in the cabin with an overly sarcastic beam, shocking Nico out of his thoughts. "Here to collect our souls for Daddy dearest?"

Once he realised who was speaking Nico grinned revealing scarily - if you didn't know him well enough - razor sharp teeth. He bounced out of the bed like the kid he once was, but regained his usual dark nature by the time he reached Percy's bunk. He raised one eyebrow when he saw Annabeth's head poking out from beneath the covers but with only one look from his elder kept his mouth firmly shut.

"Good morning." Nico muttered throwing in a smile almost Identical to his father's, except his probably didn't promise death.

Percy poked Annabeth in the shoulder "Come on Annabeth, rise and shine." He said quietly. "Annabeth? Nico's here." He prodded again, poking her harder to wake her.

"Nico? Is he french?" His girlfriend mumbled pulling the blanket towards her.

"No he's Italian. Makers of Pizza and Pasta etc." Percy smiled, long used to Annabeth's wierd mourning habits. "And we have to get moving now."

"Your lying!" She growled "He is French! Tell him we don't want snails... or baguettes!" Annabeth buried herself further into the blankets and muttered something that was most likely insulting to the French, she hadn't liked them since a daughter of Aphrodite who had recently moved back to New York had insulted her.

"What?"Nico whispered curious to hear Annabeth at her dumbest; when she was half asleep- the only time demigods could safely say they were smarter than a child of Athena.

"You sound demented" Annabeth mumbled rolling over so her back was facing Percy. "A demented duck." She clarified and drifted off again, flapping her arms like a bird to emphasise her point.

Nico smirked "A demented duck?" he mouthed "Is she always like this?" Percy nodded, Nico froze and looked horrified at what he'd just learnt. Percy laughed at Nico's expression, knowing that in a few seconds Annabeth would realise what she had said and fully wake up.

She did not disappoint as, seconds after her laspse in IQ points, Annabeth sprang up and immediately glared at Percy. "You did that on purpose."

"Yup." He smiled cheerfully "Good morning." Her glare, if possible, grew more deathly.

Annabeth groaned "Perseus Jackson! So help me if you ever do that again I will-" Percy rolled his eyes and shot a look to Nico, who also rolled his eyes and stepped fully out of the shadows with a friendly (and totally fake) smile in place.

"Morning." Nico skilfully distracted Annabeth and, true to his early 20th century upbringing, Nico tipped an invisible hat in her direction. "I've already informed Chiron of the quest, so we should leave for around... I dunno 10?"

All traces of anger drained from her face and she yawned sweetly as if she never had considered killing her boyfriend "Oh, wonderful Nico's here!" sighed Annabeth, pulling herself out of bed and stretching "Would it kill you to knock?"

"I shadow travelled." He dedpanned.

Annabeth rolled her eyes muttering a quick 'typical'. "Seriously Nico, You need to work on your manners." She smiled before adding as an afterthought "and your social skills in general."

"My social skills are fine! Is this 'Be Mean To Nico' day again?" He scowled, probably remembering the last BMTN day when everyone had decided to hide his stuff.

"Nah, its annoy the heck out of him day. BMTN day is next week." Annabeth smiled lazily combing her hair with her fingers in an attempt to straighten it. "See ya, seaweed brain." She smiled giving Percy a quick kiss. Then walked briskly out the door, in the direction of her cabin.

Nico grimaced "Really? PDA this early in the morning? You spent all night together!" Percy grinned wickedly but rolled his eyes and began packing for the quest. "It's not like that."

Nico frowned "Is this another thing I'll understand when I'm older?"

Percy grinned "Nope, you'll get it when you have a girlfriend like mine."

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><p>"As your best friend  nicest person in the world, I am going to ignore the fact you hung up on me last night." Lucy beamed whilst adding chocolate flakes to her overflowing cup of... what ever it was (she'd finished her cocoa about 5 minutes ago).

"Really though, you should be_ thankful_ that I decided to inform you _immediately_ of my discovery. I always knew mum called me Lucy for a reason."

Kifa rolled her eyes at her best friend and took a sip of her hot chocolate, "And as your best friend I'm going to ignore the fact you called me at 4am on a Sunday." She picked out a blueberry muffin from the rapidly shrinking pile, then cursed as the pile wobbled dangerously to the left.

"Frick, watch out Luce!" She warned her midget friend who was in danger of being crushed by the muffin mountain, but she shouldn't have worried, because the second her friend looked up a waitress nearby tripped, her tray knocking into the hazard and stilling it.

Not one muffin fell.

"My gosh!" the waitress picked herself up and rushed over to their table, "I am so sorry for the inconvenience, I'm not normally this clumsy."

"That's alright." Lucy beamed "It looks like you saved our muffins." The waitress grinned.

"That's good then." She beamed. "Tell ya what, I'll get you two a refill on those cocoa's. They're are almost finnished."

"That sounds great!" Lucy started, then shot her friend a look as Kifa kicked her shin. "Yeah sounds great but can we get a raincheck?" She looked meaningfully at Lucy "We_ need _to be going home soon, _some_ of us have packing to do."

"Oh." the waitress frowned "Well... shall I get the bill for you?"

"And a take out box for the muffins please?" Lucy piped up gesturing to the pile of 20 or so muffins, "Sure hun."The lady smiled "I'll be back for your cups later."

Lucy grinned "Thanks a lot!"

"Woah that was lucky." Lucy chirped and downed her hot chocolate. "She seemed nice didn't she?"

"Of course." Kifa's response was a bit distant, she took a careful sip of her hot chocolate studying the pile of muffins before her. _How did they not fall? _As hard as she tried all her physics lessons (or what little she paid attention to) could not explain how the tower stayed so still-

"Anyway." Lucy grinned tapping on her cup to break Kifa's musings "I called you here to talk about Narnia, and how it has changed since the 1950's."

Kifa groaned, muttering to herself how she should have known Lucy would keep her here for _that. _"Narnia doesn't exist." She said firmly, sounding alot like her Grandma. All she needed was a grey smock, a crochet pattern and lavender bath salts and she might as well be a clone.

"Nonsense!" Lucy beamed "I'm obviously Lucy (-duh who else?), your Aravis so your gonna meet a kid who's sweet but awesome like Cor..."

"How the heck am I Aravis?" Kifa cut in, immediately regreting opening her mouth. As much as she loved her friend, she needed to hear less of Lucy's logic. There was a possibility that madness was contagious, and Kifa wasn't about to take any chances.

"Well your a girl so you can't be Edmund or Peter, too sarcastic to be Susan... So Aravis!" Lucy's beam faded slightly when she saw her friends blank stare. "You both have weird names at least."

"My Dad liked 24!"

"That's spelt 'Kiefer' not Kifa."

"He had spelling issues." Kifa insisted... Actually, come to think of it was her dad a demigod? Children of demigods could enter camp and it explained why she wasn't claimed yet. Lucy sighed and fished a teaspoon through her cup, eventually pulling out a gooey marshmallow coated in chocolate sprinkles and cake. She chewed on the sticky mess thoughtfully before her green eyes regained there sparkle.

"Got it!" She grinned clapping her hands. "Your mum died when you were young and you were raised by an evil step mum who is truly evil."

'My mum is probably a god!' Kifa argued mentally but she downed her chocolate and decided to humour her friend "As opposed to what? 'fakely' evil?"

"Nope. Like a fairytale evil step mum. Like cinderella's!"

"Still an evil step mum." Kifa dedpanned

Lucy shook her head vehemently, brown bob swinging from side to side like a rag doll "No- because cinderella's mum never tried to kill her..." Her eyes widened as she realised what she had just said, both hands covered her mouth; emerald orbs glistening as she watched Kifa's own pair tear.

"Sorry!" she gasped reaching for Kifa's, in an effort to comfort her. "I am so sorry!"

Kifa shook her head, knowing that Lucy meant no harm. She would have said somthing too but, all her energy was focused on trying not to cry.

"You know I don't think before I say things- please don't cry Kifa!" Lucy garbled her own eyes filling with tears. "_Please _Kifa, please I'm sorry I didn't mean too. Don't cry. Please?"

_She could smell the almonds, bitter almonds as she walked up the stairs. Was her new mummy cooking again?_

_New mummy, new house, new school... she hated it! Daddy wasn't coming back she _knew _that,__ he was gone for good like Bambi's mum and Simba's. _

_Mummy's cooking always smelt of almonds- Cyanide. That what the police called it, "It was lucky she'd never eaten the stuff." They'd said. She wouldn't have, she couldn't... Kifa had been unable to eat almonds since she had smelt them on her dead daddy's breath, then she'd destroyed the evidence, she must have... earthqakes weren't common where they lived, her demigod powers must have triggered such chaos at such a young age._

_It had been 5 years now... since the court date, never seeing her mummy since- yet almonds, the smell of bitter almonds brought all the worst memories flooding back._

_Almonds where what her mother always smelled of; that or a strange chemical scent. The next few houses smelt of chemicals, neighbours always complained, dead pets, wierd growths, the list of complaints followed them from neighbourhood to neighbourhood. Kifa thought they were cursed._

_A cloud of chemicals that bleached her hair white, and filled her lungs shrinking them... suffacating, constantly suffocating- she couldn't breath not with her fathers death heavy on her shoulders, and resolve to be the best daughter possible. _Anything for a mothers love_._

_Later Kifa was told she was being poisoned, it was a miracle she had survived. But she'd never believed it. Her mother wouldn't do that, though proven guilty, murder, attepmted murder and abandonment. Family always stuck together, they didn't kill each other. Right?_

Kifa smiled half-heartedly at her worried friend "It's okay Luce really..." She trailed off, eyes stinging because of unshod tears. "I'm gonna head home early, don't wait up 'kay?" She fumbled around in her purse for a bit before fishing out what looked like a $10 note. It could have been $20 for all she cared, her vision had already blurred she had to leave _now._

One arm through her jacket, the other pulling her worn out shoulder bag behind her Kifa raced out of the cafe and out into the street.

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><p>"So what exactly are we looking for?" Percy scanned the field full of dreary, muttering spirits. He raised an eyebrow at his girlfriends silence. Annabeth had her head buried into a faded book of greek myths, somehow managing to navigate her way through the fields of Asphodel without looking up.<p>

"Dunno, there are millions of souls in Asphodel. How are we supposed to find Orpheus?" Nico groaned

"Simple." Annabeth spun on her heel to face them, "We're in the centre of the fields, Orpheus was reunited with Eurydice in the centre. They wouldn't have walked far."

"You don't know where they could have gone to between now and 2000 years ago!"

Annabeth smirked "I wouldn't bet on it." She pointed to a couple smiling shyly at each other, the man singing something into his wife's ear.

"I swear there is something she's not telling us." Nico muttered as Annabeth smartly walked towards the couple, the two boys followed somewhat sulkily afterward.

Percy nodded "There has to be some really complex way that she worked out where they were."

"Can't just be luck."

"No it has to be something to do with..." He thought back to his science lessons "The angle of projection." He stated, feeling fairly confident with that comment. Hanging with Annabeth was definetly paying off.

Nico stared at him "Angle of projection..." He repeated slowly "That's Physics... Right? The Hell? How did you not fail school?"

_Well there went his gold star for smartitude._ Percy glared at his cousin. In reality he'd spent that last few years in revision classes with Annabeth and Grover (you know, to keep them from getting... distracted). He'd learnt the stuff alright... He just had a small issue with keeping the facts inside his head... ADHD and all that.

Annabeth waved the boys over " Come on! Apparently Rachel's not here but Orpheus has a prophecy about this."

"A prophecy? One we don't know about?"

"There are alot of prophecies we don't know about."

Percy frowned, thinking back to the mini library in Annabeth's cabbin. As per usual his girlfriend read his thoughts and rolled her eyes muttering about how the Athena cabbin wasn't the greatest library in the world and why did everyone always think that?

"Anyway," she guestered back to the bored looking ancient couple before them "Apparently there was a prophecy that Orpheus predicted soon after Eurydice's death... all about reuniting and stuff." Orpheus took this as his que to start spouting a prophecy... Which to Percy was most-likely the dumbest thing he'd heard all day.

_When Lands of Egypt and Greece combine_

_The hearts of 41 shall align_

_And together they will fight the Earth_

_To win but lose and await Re-birth_

_Of all 3 lands, yet Greece is stronger_

_The gods won't help you any longer._

"This has what to do with Rachel's death-thingy?" Nico demanded

"There was more but its forgotten now. 2000+ years in these fields... your're lucky I remembered it. " Orpheus sighed wrapping his arms around his wife. "It will make sense to you soon." He pulled Eurydice close and the two ancient spirits faded into the mass of souls around them.

"Well this was a waste of time. Horrible idea asking Orpheus - just 'cos he's got Persephone's Vote. Gets to keep his memories and all that..." Nico - ever the sceptic - fumed. Percy figured it was less because of Orpheus and more to do with his step-mum "A prophecy? Who knows how long it will take to come true?"

He paced through the rows of spirits muttering to himself about the uselessness of the dead. "It doesn't make sense!"

Annabeth turned to Percy at the same time as he to her; for a second they stared at one another, in a silent conversation, before Percy voiced their deepest fear.

"Are the dreams we had last night somehow connected to the prophecy?"

"Mmmm... Apparently the propecy would start coming true with strange dreams, an oracle trapped in her own mind and Greeks and romans making peace." She raised her hand to stop him from asking the next question.

"Eurydice told me the reason this was never written down was because at the time Greeks and Romans and Eygpt felt they would never make peace. Also, Cassandra was the first to tell this prophecy... You know the mad prophetess?" Percy did know, and the most important thing about Cassandra was that she was NEVER wrong.

"So what does it mean?" He sighed convinced now that he was about to start his 3rd great prophecy.

Annabeth shrugged "Not a clue... All I know is 'it' is happening now, whatever 'it' is."

"And that were going to be right in the middle of it as always." Percy let his face relax into a grin and he reached over to clasp his girlfriend's hand. Immediately she copied, leaning into him as they began to make their way back to the entrance of the fields.

Annabeth's grey eyes twinkled for the first time since Rachel's 'death'. "That too." She agreed smiling back, swinging her arms a little.

"Wanna wait for Nico?"

She turned her head to survey the crowd behind her, when Nico's scowling face didn't show, Annabeth frowned slightly.

"He already left."

"Kid finally learnt to give some privacy..." He leaned down to kiss her - and she didn't disagree.

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><p>Rachel stared at the kid as he flicked through what looked to be an indepth study of the human body, his black eyes absorbing every word with lightning speed.<p>

"Are you actually reading that?" She rose to a sitting position to get a better look at the child. He nodded then went back to his reading. "Impressive, who taught you to read?"

He shrugged "One of the Cyclops. He was getting blind." Rachel frowned, so there were Cyclops as well as bugs. What_ else_ was on this Island?

She changed the subject. He may look like a kid but she wasn't too sure she could trust him... even if he was adorable. "How old are you 4? 5? No offence but you're kinda shrimpy to be 6."

He turned from his book with a frown "My age? Not sure."

"You don't know?" Rachel slipped slowly off the bed careful not to pull any further muscles.

"Everyone on this island is immortal age. It doesn't matter."

"Okay so how many years have you been here?"

"Time?" He reached for a thick hardback flicking the well-worn pages to almost the end then shutting the book. "There's 365.242199 days in each year, 1 day is composed of 24 hours, each hour is 60 minutes, a minute is 60 seconds a second is made of 100 nanoseconds 1 nanosecond is..."

"Okay so how many of those do you remember?"

"Memory is an unreliable source, the mind forgets stuff... even though I have photographic memory; I don't have Hyperthymesia."

Rachel was stunned. Aischylos went from being a scared, abused child to being an unemotional genius in seconds. Considering the pattern of moods she was getting used to since she had met him, in a few seconds the scared child would show.

Aischylos tugged on her sleeve "Is it so bad that I don't have an age?"

Rachel shook her head "Never mind. How 'bout I give you one?"

"Okay!" He nodded happily, attempting another smile. Rachel studied him, secretly proud his smiles weren't so bad now and they made him look like a normal (okay slightly underweight) 4 year old, maybe a little closer to 5.

"'Kay from now on your 4 years... 5 months... and 10 days old! So your birthday will be..."

"On the 1st Dec exactly 4 months and 24 days from now." He bobbed his head, mentally checking his working and grabbing a pen to write his new birthday down. "The 1st of December. That makes me a Sagittarius. I'm also born on World AIDS day. Did you know my birthstones's a blue turquiose, though I don't like jewellery..." Rachel rolled her eyes. He went right from being a cute kid, excited about his birthday to star-signs and smart stuff in seconds again.

"Where are you getting this stuff?" Aiscchylos pointed to a book labelled 'Obscure facts about every day! Make everyday interesting!' Rachel chose not to comment on his interests "And the books? Where do they come from?" He thought for a second and shrugged.

Rachel leaned back and looked at the cave celling "Your strange you know that? Besides how do you know what date it is?" The kid didn't look all that put out and he drew Rachel's attention to a digital clock in the corner of the cave "It appeared when you did." He stared at her for a second.

"Your a vertebrate aren't you? Like the Rabbit was?"

Rachel paused "Well yeah... Wait, you've met a rabbit? I thought you never stepped outside."

"I walk around the Island a lot. Books can get boring after the 15th time or so..." Rachel nodded in agreement, she may not be a demigod but her hatred for books was the same.

"So what happened with the rabbit?"

"It almost got killed by my brother, Antares the scorpion." Again weird to hear from a 4 year old, but he actually seemed happy to share something other than weird facts.

"Okay then what's the story of this rabbit then?."

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><p><em>He wasn't supposed to be out that day, but what did it matter? He was <em>never_ allowed out._

_"Just you wait _human, _your dead when I catch you, don't you think otherwise!"_

_Aischylos didn't think otherwise. Antares would find a cruel and unusual way to kill him, especially because he's family. He weaved through the trees, praying to well... nobody. Gods were as cruel as his mother and Aischylos's personal belief was that somehow becoming immortal made you evil. He dodged another tree, clutching the injured rabbit closer to his chest. Slowly, he became more confident he'd shaken Antares off somewhere and slowed to a brisk walk, he was deeper in the forest than he'd ever been before, still at least the rabbit was safe._

_"Learn to leave Antares's meals alone little brother." Briseis hissed scuttling down a tree._

_ Aischylos froze. Briseis was calm, which tended to be more dangerous than her normal giggly-self. He watched her circle him a few times shielding the rabbit (he wasn't going to let his sister eat it either)._

_"Think I can't see the bunny Half-blood?" _

_'She's a half-blood too' he thought bitterly. Her father was human too! But he kept his mouth shut._

_"Fool!" She lashed at him with a crooked leg, drawing a red line of blood across his cheek. "I could eat it now just to spite you."_

_" Don't. __Please..." His tongue feeling like lead, finally free after biting hard enough to bleed to stop him from speaking back._

_Briseis laughed "Your face!" She chortled stamping her feet on the ground, thoroughly amused with his begging. "Go on then, you've cheered me up."_

_He looked up in surprise. She wasn't normally this generous._

_"It's a 2 second head start."_

_Aischylos sighed and took off blindly into the woods._

_"1"_

_"2"_

_"_Ready or not here I come_"_

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><p><em>To Be Continued...<em>

_A/N: Wow this may be the longest chapter yet!_

_And now begins the ritualistic review begging :) But seriously though it really doesn't take that long to review, just a couple of seconds and you gain our eternal love, plus it keeps us writing. So yeah, review please._


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